


you're the one my mom was always warning me about

by bratwonders



Series: Comictober [3]
Category: Teen Titans (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Bombs, CANON WHO, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is Robin, Gen, Guilt, Non-Graphic Violence, Regret, Self-Sacrifice, Serious Injuries, Wally West II-centric, damian wayne is a good person, damian's team likes him, slade wilson sucks, yeah i threw canon out the window on this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27195395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bratwonders/pseuds/bratwonders
Summary: Lace learns he's severely misjudged Damian's character. He wishes he didn't need a tragedy to do it.Day 3 of Comictober: Speed
Relationships: Damian Wayne & Everyone, Djinn & Emiko Queen & Xiomara Rojas & Damian Wayne & Wally West II & William Wu, Teen Titans & Damian Wayne, Wally West II & Damian Wayne
Series: Comictober [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961182
Comments: 3
Kudos: 67





	you're the one my mom was always warning me about

Lace, when he first met Damian, didn’t like him.

That seemed to be a pattern, he noticed. No one on the team liked Damian at first (and he still has the sneaking suspicion a few members of the team still don’t), with his haughty attitude and holier-than-thou demeanor. He’s so _annoying,_ the way he talks over everyone and refuses to listen to anyone. His voice is like nails on a chalkboard, and the way he speaks makes Lace want to plug his ears with his fingers.

Damian’s so… unusual. Lace doesn’t know much about him besides his dad is Batman, and his grandfather is, apparently, a bad guy. But bad family members aren’t an excuse to be an insufferable prick -- Lace should know. Xiomara’s dad was Lobo, Emiko’s mom was Shado, for fuck’s sake, Lace’s _own dad_ was one of the Flash’s greatest enemies. It was something the three bonded over, their fucked up pasts. Maybe Damian could join that circle, he thought, if he ever bothered to try and befriend the rest of his team.

But he didn’t, so Lace didn’t try to push him. It led the rest of the team to form an almost familial connection that Damian, simply, wasn’t a part of. Damian seemed content with that, so Lace didn’t care.

  
  
  
  
  
  


The mission starts generally standard. They’re lounging in Titans Tower, Billy and Emiko chatting on the couch as some show plays on the TV, Xiomara and Djinn are in the kitchen eating the leftovers from their Chinese takeout, and Lace is sitting at his laptop, finishing up his homework. Damian, as per usual, is nowhere to be found.

They’re all startled out of their peaceful lounging by the alarm blaring. Djinn jumps out of her seat, beckoning for Xiomara to follow, who does so begrudgingly. Emiko makes a beeline for the computer, filling in as the leader in Damian’s absence. (In Lace’s opinion, she should be the leader _all_ the time. She’s loyal, trusting, cooperative, all the things Damian _isn't.)_

“Upper Presidio.” She calls out. “Slade’s on a total rampage.”

“C’mon,” Xiomara whines, or, at least she tries to, but her face is stuffed with vegetable lo mein. “We _just_ fought him!”

“Where’s Robin?” Billy frowns, clearly annoyed.

“Here.” Damian deadpans from behind Lace, making him jump. Okay — he was definitely _not_ there two seconds ago. “What are we doing standing here? Let’s go.”

Xiomara and Billy share a frustrated, ‘ _I wanna punch him in the face’_ look, but said nothing as the team suited up and prepared their monthly -- which had been lately turning into _weekly_ \-- Slade Wilson beatdown.

  
  
  
  
  
  


When they arrived, most of the people in the area had already been cleared out. There was some minor damage to the surrounding buildings, but it wasn’t anything a chunk of Damian’s cash couldn’t fix. They could focus on that later, for now, they needed to turn their attention to the one-eyed mercenary wreaking havoc on San Francisco.

“The Teen Titans.” Slade laughs, words slightly slurred, and -- is he _drunk?_ “Thought you’d never show.”

“Enough with the games, Deathstroke!” Damian shouts, making Lace cringe. Did he always have to provoke the bad guys? “What’s your plan?”

“My _plan?”_ He snorts and shakes his head. “Hmmm, I don’t know. Kill you guys, maybe get a burrito.”

Xiomara huffs and jumps into action, clearly tired of the petty bickering. The reaction is instantaneous, the other Titans follow Xiomara in her footsteps as Slade pulls out his katana. 

It’s kind of amazing how well Slade is able to handle his own. Wally once told him that Lace’s Teen Titans were a hundred times more powerful than the original. Lace took it as a joke, but as he started focusing on and honing in on his teammates’ skills, he realized Wally could very well be telling the truth. Emiko and Damian were the only “average” members of the team, and even then, they were both seriously skilled in their respective fields of expertise. It always filled Lace with a sense of pride, seeing how strong and powerful his team really was. The fact that Slade was able to keep up with them at all was impressive in itself.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts by a loud beeping coming from one of the nearby buildings. Beeping that sounded suspiciously like…

“Hah! The bomb still works.” Slade smirks, making Lace’s stomach do a flip. _No._

He’s running into the building before he can even think. There are _people_ in the building, innocent people, and Lace needed to get them out _now._ He didn’t even know how long he had, how big the blast radius was, where the bomb _was._ All he could think about was getting those people out.

Billy, Emiko and Djinn join him in evacuating the people, while Damian and Xiomara stay behind to fight off Slade. As Lace runs through the halls, he becomes acutely aware this is an office space, with people scattered out throughout every room. It would make this harder, but not impossible -- well, hopefully not impossible, seeing as he had no idea how much time he had left until the bomb went off.

Together, the three of them are able to get everybody out, and once the threat of a bomb spread through the building, guiding them to the exit became much easier. Lace did a final check of the building to make sure everyone was out safely before rejoining the fight against Slade.

At least, he tries to, but it seems the fight ends just as he arrives. He was just barely able to catch the sight of Xiomara grabbing the mercenary by the leg and flinging him into the building. Her eyes widen slightly as he crashes through the window, sprawled out limply into the building set to explode.

“Shit--” Xiomara muttered under her breath, but Damian was in her face in a second.  
  
“What did you do?!” He growled, grabbing her by the shirt. Immediately, Djinn runs in to stop him, but stops just short as Xiomara speaks up.

“I’m sorry! I wasn’t aiming--”

Damian turns to the building as the beeping becomes more rapid. The bomb could go off any second. Lace is ready to run out of there -- he didn’t want Slade to die, but if it was between his team or his enemy, of course he would save his team. But before he can, Damian turns on his heel and runs into the building.

Lace realizes, just a second too late, that Damian is trying to _save Slade._

_“Robin!”_ Emiko cries out. The team is completely frozen in place as Damian rushes into the building.

And then it blows up.

The blast radius is surprisingly small, staying in the confines of the building. Lace can only watch in muted horror as the foundation crumbles, the entire thing falling down on itself.

Right on top of Damian.

No one can say anything for a moment. Lace glances at the team, only to be met with faces reflecting the same amount of terror that Lace is feeling.

“Robin...” Lace whispers, hands shaking slightly. “Robin!” 

He fights off the urge to say _please. Please, Damian, don’t tell me this is really happening. It can’t. You can’t be..._

The following silence is torture to Lace’s ears. The rest of the team waits with bated breath, not knowing the next move to make.

“Find him.” Xiomara’s voice breaks through the silence, and Lace can’t help but blink in genuine shock. Her voice… it’s broken, wrecked. He’s never heard her so _terrified._ Xiomara’s tough, weak just didn’t seem to be in her vocabulary until this moment. She sounds borderline helpless, like she can’t possibly understand what’s happening. That feeling, Lace guesses, spans through the entire team.

_“Find him!”_ She repeats, voice raised to an uncharacteristic screech, conviction in her voice. The sound is enough to get Lace moving again, as he turns away and starts to dig through the rubble of the fallen building, limbs working faster than they ever have. 

Lace was never the fastest out of his “Flash-family.” That title belongs to Wally West… the original Wally West, that is. He also wasn’t the strongest… that belonged to Barry. But, there was one thing Lace knew for sure, the core of his being, the thing that defined him--

When his friends were in danger, he would go to the ends of the earth to help them.

The thought of knowing his _friend_ was stuck under piles of rubble, possibly seriously injured, possibly _dead…_

He fights back the urge to throw up as he continues to dig through the remains of the building.

Damian had run into that building, thinking -- _knowing_ \-- he was going to die. He had run in with the intent of _sacrificing his own life_ to save the man trying to _kill them._

_Why?_

Why? Why couldn’t Damian just let him die? Let Slade die and save himself. Why did he put himself in harm’s way for the _enemy?_

Was he truly that selfless?

“I found him!!” Xiomara screams, making Lace come back to reality. She pulls Damian’s limp body from the rubble, and Lace fights the urge to throw up. He’s bleeding all over, his suit in tatters, body completely limp.

All that, to save the _villain._

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Damian spends three days asleep in the Batcave until he wakes up. During that time, Bruce and Alfred stay with him almost 24/7. Billy only comes around once a day to see if he’s woken up. Xiomara and Djinn stop by every few hours to check on him, as well as apologize profusely to Bruce. Lace is surprised at that -- it obviously wasn’t their fault. They couldn’t have possibly known what Damian was going to do. Emiko doesn’t leave the Manor, instead choosing to stay and help monitor and take care of Damian. Lace can’t help but think it comes from a place of guilt, of wanting to make up for hurting Damian. He doesn’t understand that, though. Lace, he’s the one who’s guilty. He could have stopped Damian, if he tried hard enough -- yet he didn’t. He let him go and almost get himself killed. Why? Because of his misplaced anger? His childish grudge against Damian? His complete lack of understanding of who Damian was beyond his walls?

Lace himself doesn’t visit Damian once. What can he say? He’s selfish. He doesn’t want to be reminded of his own shortcomings, how badly he’d failed his teammate. Just thinking of Damian, his mangled and bloody body under all that rubble, it makes him sick.

Lace was supposed to protect his teammates. Damian was his teammate. He was worth no less than Xiomara, or Emiko. Lace is quick to realize, perhaps, he _had_ indeed thought less of Damian because of the lack of comradery between them. He hadn’t _wanted_ to protect Damian.

The thought disgusts him to his core. Even if Damian was different, he was still their teammate, and judging by his actions -- he was more selfless than all five of the other members combined. 

When Damian wakes up, Lace will do everything in his power to fix lack of friendship between them. For now, he sits, and he _regrets._

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: @bratwonders


End file.
